In PRC, market research was the backdoor for those interested in going to brand management. There have been quite a number of research analysts who made the leap to brand management after gaining two to three years experience in research. They became attractive to marketing managers because their experiences in the markets they service are extensive and in depth. Presentations of research results are the showcases of their talents and the extent of knowledge they have of markets. The more aggressive determined ones invariably get tapped to go to marketing.  

 The people who have made the move to brand and to subsequent upward appointments outside PRC were Angie Lacson who became a Senior Vice President of Ayala Land; Maricelle Narciso, who applied for a management trainee position in Personnel was persuaded to join market research but eventually transferred to brand management. She is now Marketing Director of Pepsi Cola. Other success stories are Jun Alcantara, Vice President for Marketing, Asia Breweries; Nena Barredo, Managing Director of Millward Brown; and Issa Baron, research consultant.  Ed Cruz joined Mang Bert Timbol in Masscom, the media buying company that was set up exclusively for Unilever where he is EVP. Other successful Unisearch alumnae were Evelyn Gancayco, who occupied a senior research position in San Miguel and later on as marketing executive of Goldilocks. Other alumnae who have made their marks in the industry are Dedette Gamboa, Senior Executive, MBL Trends; Joy Isla, Senior Manager, Unilever; Marivic Azuelo, became General Manager of Kraft Foods; Joy Mangahas, with Manufacturer’s Life and others like Margot Balderas who specialized in the telecoms industry. Meng Estrada, Lulu Samson and Leila Tolentino went on to handle responsible marketing positions in multinational companies.   

Some of the guys who have had short stints in Unisearch like the super successful Ding Salvador who became the Asean President of Johnson and Johnson; Luvi Lim, now in the US and Tony Castro, a marketing executive. The success stories of Unisearch alumni are plentiful. Those mentioned were those who went to brand management after Unisearch.   

The success list goes on to include those who did not pass through brand management. Leading this group is Efren Samonte who became the commercial director of PRC; Peachy Badilla, Marketing Director of Marketing group selling high end products; Pete Bernardo, became Research Manager of CocaCola, now a retired resort owner in Pangasinan. Slim Quiambao, owner of Business Workshop, Inc. a research company who was a major manpower resource to Unisearch and later to ACNielsen; Benjie Encarnacion, Vice President for Research in Nestle, Philippines; Ching Lacson became Registrar of Central Colleges of the Philippines, Cely Corpuz completed a successful career in Unilever as a manager in marketing services and later on as consultant; Chiqui Lara, Vice President, Basic Advertising, George Sison, distributor of Unilever Products, the late Meng Lim who at her time occupied important positions in various research organizations; Reena Murga became Research Manager of Unilever, Abby Limqueco joined Citibank as a manager in research: Nelia Fabie who held a senior position at ACNielsen the largest research organization worldwide and now a director of Unisolutions.  

The former heads of the PRC research unit who have had illustrious and successful careers would include Bert Timbol who organized and ran Masscom, the media buying company who bought media exclusively for Unilever; the late Ato Maningat who became the commissioner of the Public Estates Authority; Nonoy Reyes had a stint as managing director of Lintas, Indonesia and is now a successful businessman and Ding Malvar who migrated to the US in the late seventies and joined a utilities company doing load management.    

There would be other names that I have failed to include who may more than deserve a mention in our list of Unisearch success stories due to my limited range of contacts and unfamiliarity with those who were way ahead of me in Unisearch.  

 The Unisearch trade name ceased to exist upon the unification of ACNielsen, Unisearch and ACNielsen, Pulse to become ACNielsen, Philippines in 1999.It would be virtually impossible to account for each and every associate that I have been blessed to work with through my years with Unisearch, first as a division of the Unilever company and later as an independent company working as part of the SRG network and at the end as unit of ACNielsen.

I have listed in the attachment the names of associates who have been with Unisearch both as Unilever and as non-Unilever. The list ends in 1999 when we finally had to drop the Unisearch name in favor of a more appropriate corporate appellation ACNielsen, Philippines. The bulk of the names in the Unilever Unisearch listing were generated in 1997 when we celebrated the golden anniversary of Unisearch, the initial unit being organized in 1947. The list covering the years 1990 to 1999 are fairly accurate because of current existing records. I hope these lists will make up for any inadvertent omissions that I might have committed in the manuscript. 

(please go to attachments for the lists)

(If you know of names that I have not included please inform me through the comment box of this blog. Include, also, what you would consider as notable post Unisearch careers and other assignations that are not in my manuscript.)